COMMENTARY: Nevada judicial candidates have a code to follow

Your Thursday editorial regarding the two complaints filed against judicial candidates seems to imply that judicial candidates should be permitted to misrepresent and deceive like any other politician running for partisan office. But instead of attacking the laws and the candidates who have filed complaints under those existing laws, you should be shedding light on candidates who seek the office entrusted to uphold the law, while at the same time breaking those very same laws.

The rules involving judicial campaigns are in place for a reason. Judges and judicial candidates are both bound by the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct. Judges, as well as judicial candidates, are required to, “avoid the appearance of impropriety” and are required to comply with the rules as written.

Several states have laws similar to the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct. Multiple courts, including the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Nevada, have ruled that laws identical to the ones in Nevada prohibiting candidates from “seeking, accepting or using endorsements from political organizations” are valid. These courts, and many others, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have noted that the state has a compelling interest in an independent judiciary and implementing laws to protect that purpose.

Judicial campaigns in Clark County are unlike any other political campaigns. They are nonpartisan, because a judge is required to be free of bias of any kind, including political influences. That is precisely why candidates are prohibited from disclosing their political affiliation and why the rules further prohibit judicial candidates from benefiting from endorsements from political organizations.

As a practicing attorney for more than 26 years, I am concerned that judges may place partisan political interests above the law and the parties before them. All too often in the courts of Clark County, the reality and/or perception is that such bias influences and impacts a sacred process of fairness, equality and justice. In the interest of every citizen of Nevada, the term nonpartisan should stand for something.

While the Review-Journal claims that the voters should decide this issue, the choice should be clear. Elect the candidates who have been accused of breaking the judicial code of conduct (Margaret Pickard or Dan Gilliam) or the candidates who have not been accused of doing so (Jack Fleeman and Mickey Bohn).

Edward D. Boyack is a Las Vegas attorney.